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plagiarism. As to the imputation made against France of her endeavouring to exclude Russia from a participation in affairs of general interest, it appears somewhat extraordinary, after the well known steps taken by France to solicit the mediation of Russia in the outset of the present war with Eng-land. This imputation is particularly few on the part of Austria, who surely cannot forget that it was France, that, in despite of Austria, brought in the intervention of Russia in the arrangement of the Germanic empire. Was it not Austria who requested a thousand times, and in the most urgent manner, that Russia should take no part in the affairs of Germany? And it is Austria nevertheless that reproaches France with endeavouring to exclude Russia from every kind of interest in the maintenance of the general balance. Neither has France more pretended to such influence with respect to England. Does not the treaty of Amiens contain stipulations with respect to objects foreign to the two contracting powers, and solely relative to the general system?Austria speaks of the rights of victory after the peace that has put an end to them;" justly and France likewise acknowledges this principle, while Austria not only attempts to revive, but to usurp the rights of victory after the conclusion of peace; and, indeed, what victory has given her a right to refuse paying the debt of Venice? Had Austria conquered Venice? What victory gave her right to annex to herself, in Suabia, a multitude of possessions, by fortifying which she weakens and alarms the neighbouring states? Had Austria been victorious in Suabia? What victory, in fine, has given her a right to torment Bavaria with pretensions, upheld by open force, and to ruin Switzerland by sequestrations? Had Austria conquered Bavaria or Switzerland? Most certainly victory should not be abused, but least of all would it be just or reasonable to take advantage of victories that have not been gained.It is possible that attempts may have been successfully made to alarm the Emperor of Germany, and to persuade him that his security may one day be threatened by France; but he will feel, perhaps too late, that the power he has most to dread is not France, and that his dangers are much nearer and much greater on the part of that power whose aid he, for the second time, has had the imprudence to accept. It is Austria that requires to be taught if that power be formidable to its neighbours? If it has set limits to the aggrandizement which seems to be the object of its political sys

tem? If it be easy to agree with it respecting the operations of war, or the combinations of peace? If the maintenance of its armies be not burthensome to those countries that adinit them? If the distance of the places from whence they come does not prolong their stay, and make their return more difficult? In a word, if the devastations committed by its light troops do not leave behind them every where indelible vestiges of their passage? This is the language of reason; but the Court of Vienna has an car only for the voice of passion, and of a thoughtless resentment against France.It was hardly to be expected to have found among the complaints of the House of Austria, the reces of the empire, which was worth to her the Bishopric of Eichstadt, of Saltzburgh; territories which she has not ceased to extend, rights which she has continually endeavoured to exaggerate; and, in fine, of indemnities which she had no reason to expect from the treaty of Luneville. Besides, was not that reces the effect of the power which Austria now connects with her complaints and her cause? States of Germany, it is to you that these remonstrances are addressed. Should the House of Austria prove successful against France, the reces will be annulled. All the states of Germany must expect to see. demands of indemnity made upon them for the indemnities they have received. Such is the respect in which Austria holds her engagements! Such is the protection she holds out to feeble states.The next article contains its own refutation. The explanations given by France have been sanctioned by events. It is a question de facto, to ascertain if violence was or was not done to the will of the people in the countries that have improved their constitution. Allegations of constraint in this respect cannot well be admitted on the part of a jealous power. It was natural for France to have wished that those countries should be happy whom she had separated from a foreign domination; and she is well aware that the only means of ensuring the happiness of a country is to leave it the choice of its institutions and its laws. The preponderance of France over Italy and Switzerland is in the first instance the result of her victories; and in the next place it has been consecrated by the very treaty of Luneville, since it did not exclude the French troops, and that at a time when these countries had no constitution. At the time of the treaty they were in the possession of the French army; they did not exhibit a republican, or any form of government. The fairest use which France

1, 1805.

I have the honour to inform your Excellency, that the day before yesterday, the line of his Majesty's flotilla, consisting of 27 gun-boats alone, under Captain Dordelin, had the whole day 23 vessels in front of them, two of which were of the line, four frigates, and the rest cutters. Yesterday the enemy had not diminished in number; but accustomed to see them in such force, I did not think it necessary to reinforce our line, convinced that it was sufficient to repel all attacks. At midnight, the weather being very thick, and the sea calm, I heard a warm firing and some discharges of cannon in the line. I made immediate dispositions for several divisions of the flotilla to go out; but the firing having ceased, I suspended that movement. Proceeding along the line, Captain Dordelin informed me that the gunboat No. 62, head of the line to the east, commanded by Ensign Alex, had been surrounded by a chain of fire ships conducted by several pinnaces.-That officer, without slipping or cutting his cable, which would successively have exposed the whole line to danger from the fire ships, kept his post firmly, and directing all his efforts to the chain which connected the fire ships, he attempted to break it and succeeded.The chain being broken, the fire ships defiled along the line, yet the gun-boat No.306, Captain Nivelain, was grappled by six of them. The officer performed the same maneuvre as Captain Alex, and his second in command, and two others, jumped into the boart and disengaged the vessel.- -But one of the fire ships having exploded near the gun-boat, she was thrown up covered with water, and had no other damage than her windows broken and some shot on board. No. 291 also experienced the effects of the blowing up. The gun-boats No. 280, 305, 138, 34, and 61, were more particularly attacked, but did not quit their post. Some of the ropes merely were cut by the balls,

and the enemy's pinnaces, repulsed by a warm firing, soon took to flight, and were indebted for their safety to the darkness of the night. At two o'clock all was quiet along the line, and we had not a man killed. At day-break, Captain Alex having perceiv ed some articles floating, sent his boat with six men for them: they brought back a spherical machine, copper sheathed, and which was found to be one of the infernal machines, call by the Moniteur, Globes of Compression. As it was being conveyed on shore, it blew up, and the Midshipman Messurier and three men perished. At low water we found on the coast several wrecks of the fire ships; and particularly a lock like that of the fire machines which the English used last year with as much ridicule and as little success. (The letter concludes by praising the conduct of the soldiers and sailors of the flotilla.) (Signed) LACROSSE.

DOMESTIC OFFICIAL PAPER. Order read to the different Companies of the Coldstream Regiment of Guards, by order of His Royal Highness the Duke of York, dated October 3, 1805.

His

The Duke of York cannot allow the pe riod of his removal from the command of the Coldstream Regiment to pass, without expressing in the strongest terms, the approbation to which the regiment is, by its uniform good conduct during the twentyone years the Duke has had the happiness of commanding it, so justly entitled. Royal Highness desires, that the officers, non-commissioned officers, and private soldiers of the regiment will, with this faithful testimony to their merit, accept his warmest thanks for the many most grateful marks of their regard and attachment, which he has experienced during the course of his command; and he desires to assure them, that individually they will ever retain his highest esteem; and that, as a corps, their honour and success will ever remain the objects of his most earnest solicitude. The Duke has done them justice in his representation to their present Colonel; and the regret with which His Royal Highness leaves the regi ment is lessened, by resigning the command of it to a successor, who, His Royal Highness is persuaded, will feel an equal attachment to the regiment, and will on every oc casion, most zealously promote its interest and happiness.

VOL. VIII. No. 17.]

[PRICE 10D.

609] BAVARIA.

PUPLIC PAPERS. Historical Representation of the Events which have directed the Conduct of his Electoral Highness, the Elector Palatine of Bavaria, dated Wurtzburgh, September 29, 1805.

Bowed down by the consequences of an unfortunate and exhausting war, Bavaria reposed in the slumber of the most profound peace. Without care, it saw the different camps in the adjoining Austrian states formed one after another. The want of peace appeared to be general, and it never suspected that it could be the intention of the powers to interrupt the public tranquillity. Though a dryness between France and Russia threatened a storm from afar, yet it was believed, that the distance between these two powers might afford a well-grounded hope, that the misunderstanding would not come to a final rupture; or, at least, that Germany would not be involved in it. Besides, the object of their dispute was so foreign to the interests of the Bavarian states, that the idea could scarcely be admitted, that it could be involved in the contest against France. Bavaria had no complaint against the Emperor Napoleon. By his vigorous co-operation, it had received indemnification for the losses it had sustained in the last war; and the courts of Vienna and Petersburgh cannot deny the interest which the Emperor of the French took on that occasion, in the Elector of Bavaria.---In these circumstances, accounts were received in Munich that the negociations which had scarcely commenced between France and Russia were broken off, and at the same time that a numerous army of Austrian troops was assembling at Wels, while considerable reinforcements were marching to the Tyrol. Several divisions of troops passed without previous notice, on their march to the Tyrol, a part of the electoral territory.

The remonstrances made upon this sub

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ject produced the most satisfactory assurances from the Austrian envoy, at Munich, that this had taken place quite contrary to the will of the Emperor; an inquiry was promised to be instituted into the conduct of the officers who had led the divisions, who. they said should be properly punished. Nothing more was heard of the matter, but the passages of troops without permission, followed more frequently and in greater numbers than before. Scarcely were these accounts received when the camp at Wels broke up, and the march of the troops to Braunau gave reason to suppose, that they meant soon to cross the Inn. The Elector, however, hoped to be able to preserve that neutrality which his geographical situation, and the interests of his exhausted states, seemed to prescribe to him as the most agreeable system.The Elector had alrea dy commissioned his minister to make overtures upon the subject to the court of Vienna, when Prince Schwarzenberg suddenly appeared in Munich. He brought a letter from the Emperor of Russia, in which his Imperial Majesty, in the most decided terms, desired the immediate union of the Bavarian with the Austrian troops. This letter contained threats in case this desire was not fulfilled, and an assurance in case of its being accomplished, that he would never make any pretensions on the smallest part of Ba-. varia. In this categorical manner an overture was made, at a period when we had the less reason to expect any pretensions to be set forth by the Austrian court, that the electoral ministry had just concluded a convention with the Imperial Plenipotentiary at Munich, subject to the ratification of the elector, by which very considerable sacrifices were made in favour of his Imperial Majesty and the Elector of Saltzburgh. The Prince of Schwarzenberg, explained more parti cularly in an interview granted him by the elector, and in another which he had with $